Misspent aid putting millions at risk in Africa, group says

A leading aid organisation has warned that millions of Africans are at risk of starving due to misspent emergency assistance by Western governments.

CARE International UK chief executive Geoffrey Dennis has called for a "drastic overhaul" of the international community's funding of emergencies.

He says it saves lives but does little more, sometimes leaving people worse off than they were before.

"It is a disgrace that money is still given too late and for such short periods, then spent on the wrong things to truly fight emergencies," he said.

"There is no excuse, when by spending money more intelligently, we can bring an end to all but the most unpredictable food crises."

A CARE report says more than 120 million people in Africa are living "permanently on the edge of emergency" because of the current system, which often provides funding too late, or inappropriately.

The report says by 2020, some $US310 million will have been spent on emergencies, some of which could be prevented.

Ethiopia, it points out, has reported itself to be in food crisis 93 per cent of the time from 1986-2004, yet US spending on long-term aid for the country is less than 1 per cent of emergency aid.

In another example, the report says responding early to the emergency in the west African state of Niger in 2005 would have cost $US1 a day to prevent child malnutrition.

Instead, at the peak of the crisis it cost $US80 to save a malnourished child's life.

The report says that lack of food is rarely the cause of emergencies; rather it is underlying problems including the HIV virus, lack of local markets, climate change and lack of cash that make people so vulnerable to emergencies.

"It is these problems that must be addressed in order to end hunger," CARE said.

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